


Horizon Zero Dawn: Eventide

by Swanne



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M, I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good, Multi, OCs - Freeform, We are going there, Where I tries to found answers for the questions that the game opens, forbidden west, maybe you think you know where this going, mythos references, new tribes, ships tags will be add when they interact in the fic, tribes politics, where are the others, you all gonna hate ted faro more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-06 02:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14632062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swanne/pseuds/Swanne
Summary: All her life, Aloy searched  for answers to her past,  and discovered the mysteries of her world and the older one in her journey. With  the future rooted in the past, and sprouting in the present, Aloy will have to deal with the cost of saving the world in the last minutes, and the chaos that it follows."if everything that you said it is right," she paused as knowing the weight of her next words. " So this world is not made for you, Aloy"





	1. Prologue: The Man Who Sold the World

**Author's Note:**

> So I finished the game and love it the story and the world building! So this was born because they left us in a point of the story with so many ways that the story could grow, so here I am wondering what one of these paths could be.

Her bright long red hair was stranded in a single braid, sometimes was easy to forget how young she really was, she talked with so much passion, that he knew, with her by his side, the world would be saved. But now they are rounded by people, wanted to know more about this first battle won, the first step of writing their names in history.

“How does is feel knowing that you helped saved the world? “  He asked when everyone else had left to celebrate, and she was alone to start talking.

She answer was just a little smile, while still working in unbraiding her hair, but quickly, her expression changed, and her hands went to the focus close to her right eye, and let go of an a deep breath. This caught him off-guard.

“My mother would be proud” She sounded uncertain of her words. “… But she never is going to see it, anyway.”

He knew what had happened to her mother, but not in too much detail to know the part she had in everything the woman in front of him did.

“Sorry, I just wanted her to being here; I should not be talking to you about this.” She mumbled the words. Her cheeks were starting become reddish. “I should not have drunk; I clearly cannot hold my liquor.”

He gave a smile, trying to shows sympathy.

“After everything we accomplish it, not, after everything that you accomplish it today, with my help, I think that you and me can consider ourselves friends, or am I wrong?”

 She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

“I think we could” She said after a time.

“And it was a celebration, you are the person that made possible, it would be rude if you didn’t drink at least the champagne.” He cut it before she could say something else.

"Yeah, I think it would be" And he saw in her hazel eyes that the type of education she had made her still uncomfortable with certain situations.

“I thought that you would still in the celebration “He inquired.

“I could ask you the same question” She was now sitting in the chair, with an eyebrow raised; he knew that she knew his fame of party, women and drinks.

“You know what they say, nobody wants to party with their boss, but why you aren’t there?” He already knew the answer.

“Now with the presentation made, that means that we have to focus in the implementation as fast as possible.” Now the passion was back in her voice. “These robots they’ll make the world better.”

 “Elizabeth, I love your effort, but…” He saw her face changing again, closing her eyes and bring her fingers to the bridge of her nose.

‘But what, Theodore?” She whispered.

“if I let you work more hours today, I may be sued for making you work to exhaustion, or worse having to tell your father that. "

Her face softens with the joke.

“So this is why you called me?”

“Maybe, but also I have something to talk with you in person. So would you open the door of your office?”” this caught her by surprise.

“Wait, you are here? In The Office, not in your mansion?” She said not looking to his hologram, but to the door.

Ted response was changing the view of his focus from him to what he was seeing, the door of her lab.

**-Elizabeth Sobeck, Scientist- Environmental Robotics-**

 -Archive Call 2042.26.15 22B Ended. Replay it? – A robotic voice cut the silence of the Bunker.

"Yes" The only human voice in the bunker answered.

“How does is feel knowing that you helped saved the world? “  The hologram of his younger self started again for the sixtieth time.

“I promised Elizabeth, that I gonna save the…, no, we are going to make this new generation better than before.”  The raspy voice again was the only sound in the bunker besides the sound of working machines.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any errors and for this little prologue, but I promise it's important and this is the casual f*** Ted Faro , that it always good to remember.
> 
> Chapter one is coming, and we gonna see the situation of Aloy and Meridian, and the Embrace,


	2. Grey Area

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the first chapter is here, longer than I expected

It was hard even to open her eyes; the journey took its toll, even if she was using the strider as a ride, Elizabet home was the farthest place she went, the only thing her mind could focus on is that she must have done the same path after closing Gaia Prime, a thousand years ago. They walked the same path, but the world was totally different, if Elizabet saw just the destruction of what the machines did, Aloy saw the work of the ones that she made through Gaia, rebuilding the earth. And now after finding Elizabeth, she was just tired.

All her life, she had only one purpose to discover who her mother was, and now she had known the maximum she could know about GAIA and Elizabeth. And now on the way back, she didn’t know what she was going to do, in fact, she did not even know where she was going, Meridian? The Sacred Land? After the battle, she left as soon as possible to find Elizabeth, she did not wait for the celebration, just a note in Olin old house, saying that she was gone and talked to Teb to say to the other Noras.

But this was the first moment that Aloy did not know what the next step would be, she found it Elizabeth, she buried her, she hoped find more about Elizabeth in her home, but everything was gone. Aloy felt more lost now, than when she did not know her past.

She was only half a day away from Sunfall, but if she continued, she knew she would fall from exhaustion on the way, laying down with her eyes closed, the only think that Aloy could thought was there if a machine showed up, she would not have the strength to fight them. She just wanted a clue of what to do know, even her focus was silent. She let sleep overtake her.

It was a calm night, and the other machines were awfully quite and keeping miles of distance from the Sunfall, the only lights were the fireflies in the tall grass surrounding Aloy and the blue lights from the overrode machines, the watcher making its pre-intended route, while the strider was recharging its blaze, until the blue lights began to fade and gave way to a green one.The watcher changed its course; it’s had a new purpose. The eye focusing on the sleeping human, it’s stood still looking until the little device in her head was activated and the unlocking process began, the ring of light start to change the shades of light blue to reflect the deep green  of the lights of the machines unknown from Alloy. When she opened her eyes because of the sound of the machines, the light was gone,  but its effects stayed.

"Hey little one what happened?"  Aloy's hands went straight to her bow, it was strange, the Watcher was close that she remembered its route allowed it, but it’s wasn’t in state of alert, she couldn’t see  any machine closer and  it was still overrode and none of the traps were triggered.

But anything that was going through her head, soon gave way to the confusion of what she heard, the familiar sound of the watcher walking being replaced by the noise of circuits being deactivated, but without the crash of metal piercing the armor of the machine. And then the sound of the watcher’s body hitting the ground.

"What?" Aloy was wide awake now, and she stood with her bow in her hands and ready to shoot, but with no right target. She was in full alert mode, breathing heavy and fast, at any sign of movement, she was going to shot the arrow, but nothing moved, besides the strider, that seemed oblivious to anything. She stayed like this until her arm was tired, studying the area, there were not many places that anything could hide, and the focus showed no sign. Just then she approached the fallen body, she had already found fallen watchers in her journey, but not like that besides the small damage done by her own spear, the body was intact, and the focus showed that it had been destroyed. Aloy stabbed with the spear, but now to open the body armor, the circuits, the wires, the core even the heart were all in perfect state, it seemed that it had just stopped working, as if it had lost all its power. She looted everything; the focus didn’t catch anything different.

“So it’s going to be just ourselves for now” She told the strider as she started to ride it.

* * *

The sun was directly overhead, when she managed to see Sunfall.  She didn’t know what to expect, after the fall of the Eclipse, the desertion of Itamen and the death of Bahavas. She thought the city was free, but the first time she passed after the battle, the town was still with the Shadow Carjas.  She did not want to risk having to fight a few dozen guards, she had not been able to sleep on the last few days and the strange incident cut short any sleep last night.

Then she did what seemed most logical, using again the armor that Sylens gave her. Aloy was trying her best to tucked her hair inside the helmet when she let go of the strider, it was time to climb the mountains around Sunfall, if it were all right, she would be able to get around the city without being seen. The sight of someone crossing from the forbidden west to the east was something that anyone would find weird, and bring unnecessary attention. It was a good plan and would have worked perfectly if the city's military forces were not guarding the two borders and Aloy had not been caught by surprise as she descended to the east of the mountain. She could see clearly the tower and the guards that were doing its patrol; they were Carjas, not from the shadow kind. Then she heard bow's strings being pushed it. She was so caught up in seeing the uniform, that she didn’t noticed that she was in the field of vision of  the guard in the right corner. She had only time to divert, but it was a little late, she felt the metal cutting part of the skin of the arm, where the armor didn’t cover it,

She looked up, it did not seem so bad, but the most important thing was to find a corner to hide, she chose one of the big stones that were so common, at this distance it was difficult to hear what the guards were talking about, and she couldn’t attack them, it was just a big misunderstanding.

She activated the focus, some guards were coming toward her, two more ahead, and three more were a few meters behind, she was almost screaming for them not to shoot, that she was on their side, when she realized they did not they used bows, but  warhammers .

"Stop firing, you idiots, you're just hitting the stone." She recognized the voice, he was here.

The blast of arrows stopped. She took it as a chance to leave the hideout. She did it so quickly, that the first Vanguards took a few steps back seeing the movement, as if it was a stalker that was showing up in front of them, but Erend just stopped walking and blinked so fast, as if he was not sure of what he was seeing it.

"Hi" It was the only thing that Aloy could said.

* * *

 

It seemed that the words made Erend come back to reality; she saw the impassive face begin to build a smile. And in a moment he was running as fast as the armor allowed towards her and stopped within arm's reach from her.

He held Aloy shoulder softly like he did after the battle, Aloy didn’t know if this was a oseram thing, she didn’t see others doing it, but she knew, every clan set its traditions, this could be one of his.

She was not accustomed to physical contact and how to respond to it without being in a battle, the first time she didn’t processed what happened, her mind was still focused that she had managed to save the world, but now, it was a strange feeling, was warm, it felt secure, but Aloy didn’t knew how to deal it with it, was volatile, it was there, and then was gone.

“You are really back” Erend let go of her shoulder.

Before anyone could say anything, they were intercepted by a parallel conversation that was too loud.

“Captain will pluck the feathers of the head of the poor soldier before the sun falls”  

"hey, shut up!" And he  turned his head to address the Vanguard, and the matter soon died, but the tone was more of a rebuke than an order.

Aloy were smiling at him, he hadn’t changed anything since the last time she'd seen him, When he returned to look at her, the smile soon gave way to an inquiring look.

He had changed his posture; he seemed ready to get into a fight. Totally alert, which could have made him change so fast, she just follow where he was looking. to find out, the bruised in her right forearm.

And then he was still tense, but now his face seemed more worried, how he could change so fast.

"You are hurt!" the voice seemed deeper and lower than normal

"It's just a scratch; even watchers have already hurt me worse.” She just needed to wash it and some herbs, with the time even the scar would disappear.

“You need to see a healer, let’s go to the city” Erend said ignoring what she had just said, and then he was already ordering the vanguards "You find the healer and send him to the quarters in the citadel, the rest of you continue to patrol”

The vanguards were quick to follow the orders and he began the walk to the steps of the entrance of the palace. It was nice to see him leading, after seeing him doubting that he had the ability, but he proved it in battle and here by what she saw.

“Are you coming or are you still saving the world?” He tilted his head and spoke in a soft tone.

She didn’t know what to answer, everything still seemed surreal, as if she was going to wake up and still have to fight the same battles, she was back in the lands where she discovered the story, but she had no idea what she would do now. She must have been slow to answer, because he soon asked another question.

"If you need to go, say it, but I think that if you go to the road again, you better let the healer take a look at it, just to be safe. It will take just a minute; I know how busy your mornings are. “

“For what I see, your days also seem to very busy” She started walking along with him.

He smiled broadly, she didn’t know if it was because of the answer or because she accepted the invitation, probably it was because of both.

* * *

The citadel was busier than she remembered, for every corner she looked, it was full of people, some making exchanges, she could hear the sound playing in the distance, she did not see just soldiers like before. It was then that she noticed that the fields of shacks that were in front of the palace were gone.

“How long have you been here?” So much has happened or may have started, that Aloy allowed herself to begin questioning Erend. She spent the last few months alone, that being silent, was the last thing she wanted it.

“Three weeks. We came over to escort the sun priests and bring supplies to the people here.” Erend seemed more excited than she was to continue the conversation.

“What about the Shadow Carjas?”

"Those who stayed in the city and were not on the meridian attack were just refugees who took spears in their hands in exchange for a plate of food, most of them received royal pardon, some decided to stay here, others left for Meridian.”

“How is Meridian?”  The memory of the city in ruin was still her mind. It was sad to think how fast was to destroy something that took years to build it.

"It is has seen better days and worse too, at least blood is not being poured and the city still exists.When I left, the plantations didn’t seem to be in the rubble season anymore. ”

They walked a little in silence, they were already close to what Aloy assumed was the headquarters of the citadel.

"Erend, do you know something about..."

“The Nora ?” She just nodded.” They stayed outside Meridian just enough time that some of the wounded could heal to endure the journey back. Your friend Teb told us that when you left, they felt they had lost … "Erend bit his lip, as if he said a thing that he didn’t want to say it. "They talked about how being in Unsacred Lands wouldn’t help them heal, Avad tried to spoke with them, to offer aid, but… anyway, words from Daytower is that they crossed the border safely, and most of the Nora are on the mountain.” He finished.

“Yeah, this sound likes them.” She just nodded.

They were entering a large corridor; Aloy could see that on each side, at least ten doors and just one Carja guard in the right corner.

"Hey from today, this room is hers." He pointed to one of the last door on the left, while talking to the guard.

Aloy heard a low “yes, sir.” before she and Erend started to walk again. She wanted to protest, she didn’t need a room, but her rational side, which hadn’t slept well at least for a week, told her to shut up.

They arrived at the door, the room wasn’t very big and it was simple, just with the bed, a small table and a chair and what appeared to be a wardrobe and a chest.

"The healer should be coming soon; I thought you could use a room, even if it's to store what you collect during the trip." He babbled at bit still standing in the door, while Aloy explored the small room.

“Yeah, I could use it.” Aloy smiled and begin to leave the bow and the other weapons on the table.

“I should be going now, could we talk later?" Erend mumbled again.

“Yeah, anytime.” She remembered that Erend had always been helpful, but he was also captain of the Vanguard and she appearing out of nowhere must have taken him out of some of his duties.

"Good" He turned around and started walking;

She went toward the door to close it, but he turned around again.

“Can I just ask one last question?”

She leaned against the door before answering "Yes, you could, but you're used it now" She joked.

He gave a loud laugh, but soon his face hardened.

She gave him an encouraging glance, she was a bit curious to know what that question was, that it couldn’t wait until later. t would be a question about the west, Erend seems surprised when he had seen her and where she was coming from, but so far had been no question about the forbidden lands.

“Did you find what you were looking for? Or are you still looking?”

It was such a simple question, it took her by surprise. He already had made it a similar question.The answer was also simple, she had found it, she wanted to find her mother, and the first opportunity she had after stopping Hades, she went to look for her resting place, but the words didn’t reach her mouth. All her life to this point was only a search for her history, and from the day of the proving everything started to unfolded,  she was always reacting it, but she reach the end of the road, but she knew she had to go on. She found it but she was still looking it.

She took a deep breath, and answered with a simple and low “Yes, I found it”.

 “I knew that if anyone could do it, it would be you.” He seemed relieved at the answer, his features relaxed and once again. He patted her shoulder gently.

She had two certainties at that moment, the pat in the shoulder was his way of greet, and that this attempt to reinforce what she'd done, made no sense, he did not know what she'd been looking for, but yet he was still right, only she could have done it.

He continued before she could say anything, "Now I'll let you rest, you need it."

“It's the middle of the day”

"You saved the world, if someone deserves a rest in the middle of the day, this would be you.” and with that he disappeared in the hallway.

With the door closed, everything in the room looked bigger and closer. She sat on the bed; the last thing she remembers to have thought was that it was too soft.

* * *

She had managed to cross the border without finding anyone. The thrill of putting her feet on the ground of these lands for the first time after letting go of the last rock of the climb was  smaller than she'd expected. She worried more about removing the dust from her gloves.

Now the way was to the northwest, she should arrive in the middle of the night.

“Sunfall, what a name, these people were so dramatic.” She said to herself as she began to walk, then she begin to train her speech. Everything depended on convincing them and she was good at this.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything is okay, it's not as if problems were on the horizon. (see what i did there?)
> 
> Green is a good color, right? Who else besides Aloy is going to visit Sunfall? Like nothing to see there.
> 
> And part of the armor, it's totally nitpicking with the game. the shadow armor doesn't hide anything, when I received mine, I was expecting at least a hood. Also, Aloy having a room, it started was only my desire as a player to store more things that I will never use,if it's important to the story...thiswould be spoiler.
> 
> About romance and ships, I'm terrible at writing romance scenes, but I see a relationship as a natural progress that Aloy's story can follow, but not now. But after having outlined those first few chapters, I noticed that some things can be considered hints of interest,so to be safe, when these interactions happens between characters, I'll update the tags.

**Author's Note:**

> Saves the world is easy, if compared to rebuild it, just ask Gaia.


End file.
